HIT BOY

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HIT-BOY

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Hit-Boy has had a championship run in 2020, adding to his already impressive resume, handling a majority of the production on 3 major projects— Detroit 2 with Big Sean, Burden of Proof with Benny The Butcher, and King’s Disease with Nas. In a year like no other, Hit-Boy has truly found a rhythm unlike anyone else in the game, and by the looks of it this run has no end in sight. Though he’s already curated some of the most notable and legendary tracks and albums of the millennium, and he continues to strive for greatness, not only working with the newest and most talented artists of today, but lending his talents to superstars and legends alike. Hit-Boy has dominated hip-hop, and the sky is truly the limit for what he can further accomplish in the future:

Q: First, let me congratulate you on the birth of your son. How’s being a new father?

A: Man, that’s amazing. It’s just like opened my eyes to like, its like this is bigger than me now, know what I’m sayin? Like I’m really doing this for him to be set up, it’s a whole different motivation. It’s been a blessing man.

Q: Do you ever think about what it’s gonna be like when your son discovers your music?

A: Man, I haven’t really thought about that, but I already play him music off the phone in the morning and stuff like that. So, I feel he already connected to it like he came to the studio one time, and he was bobbing his head and he was like 4 months then, he gonna be locked in, I can tell.

Q: What do you play him when you’re playing music off your phone, what do you have your son listening to?

A: Anything…When I was working on Big Sean’s album, you know I would come with a newer mix of a song and I’d wake up, play it for him. Working on Nas’s album, I be up in the morning on the bluetooth playing the whole Nas album back-to-back, it’s just you know, everything I’m working on.

Q: In recent years, we have seen hip-hop circle back to the trend of the one producer album, with you recently on the forefront of this movement: Why do you think this has come back to the mainstream and how has it affected rap?

A: I mean, it’s because people see the results you get when you got that more focused project, versus doing too much. You know, with me personally, I just wanted to get back to like you know…it just was a lot of people sending me records that two or three producers already worked on, like “add something to this, finish it for me”. I flushed out a lot of records, and you know sometimes I wouldn’t even get the percentage I feel like I deserve, and I’m like “why the fuck did I do that anyway?” You know what I’m sayin, I feel like I got beats that are harder than this shit anyway in my computer, so just getting back to really like one producer beats, even though I collab with some of the homies, my boy GRy, who did “Laugh Now, Cry Later”, he actually made that beat at my studio on my computer. It’s just crazy to see the people around me get more opportunity and set their foot in this thing; it’s dope to watch.

Q: This year you handled a lot of the production on 2 major projects, Detroit 2 and King’s Disease, with a third on the way with Benny the Butcher. How does your process for production change based on the artist and project?

A: Honestly man, I just make music and I always pride myself on being versatile. Just having different styles so, honestly, I just be having the beats they need. I just play shit that I feel like belongs, really. It just sounds good, it got a pocket to it, it’s easy to make a song too. I just kind of lay it out so it’s easy to make a song with whatever artist I’m working with.

Q: Yeah, the interesting part is like, let’s compare King’s Disease to Detroit 2, your production was just so different, yet it was still so you. I just feel like you work really well with people’s styles.

A: With Sean, I knew he needed a new, super modern, updated sound; just the freshest, newest shit. And with Nas he had to keep that sound, but still make it sound new at the same time. I just kind of pay attention to what’s going on, study and do my homework.

Q: Looking through your production history, that is so clear. Especially with your work with Juice WRLD. You actually produced my favorite Juice WRLD song, “Big”.

A: Man, see, that’s whats up. You’re a real one. Cause people don’t be understanding how dope that song is and the crazy part is I pulled up on him and we loaded up the beat to “HeMotions” first, he did that, and then he did “Big”, all within 45 minutes he had did both of those songs. So, it’s just like crazy for that shit to come together like that.

Q: “Big” reminded me of mixtape Wayne. I know that’s kind of an outlandish thing to say, but when I heard the bars…people just forget that Juice could really rap and I feel like the beat you gave him really brought it out. It was simple, it was something he could ride and I feel like he just showed his talent really well on that.

A: That’s dope man. Juice is super legend, man. Just watching him make songs. Like I would drop off a pack, and he would record to every beat. It’s funny because, there’s people DMing me and tagging me in songs that’s leaking, and it’s like, damn I didn’t even know he recorded to this beat and I’m looking, I’m like….I dropped him off a 20-21 pack of beats and he recorded to damn-near every beat. Like, that’s crazy.

Q: I was interested to see how much you two worked together.

A: Yeah man…he’s a lot younger, so he would always wanna just like…every time we would link he would be like “man we gonna work all night tonight”…I would be like man….I gotta go to the crib like at some point. He just had that energy, he was in GOAT mode at all times like he really had that youthful spirit. But, he was intelligent. He never ran out of words. He freestyle for hours in my studio. He just never ran out of stuff to say.

Q: Yeah for sure, I would watch his radio freestyles all the time and you could tell her was really freestyling. He didn’t miss a beat.

A: No for sure, he was crazy. It’s just insane…It don’t even seem real…It doesn’t even feel real that he’s gone.

Q: Going back to your projects that you’ve made this year, What did you take away from the experience of making each project?

A: Really it was just a personal realization. Like,” I’m capable of doing this”. Before Nas dropped, I was like “Man, I don’t know how they bout to really receive this.” Cause I’ve done full projects for people, but never on the stature of like a Nas. Like that’s a legend. Like hip-hop heads, they gonna be ready to chew your head off if you don’t come correct. I just wanted to make sure that it sounded good and for it to come out and be embraced like that, it definitely gave me that confidence to just like “I’m about to do this shit even more and go even harder.”

Q: What’s the difference in your process between producing for others and producing for yourself?

A: Honestly, it’s all just music at the end of the day. I know what’s for me when it’s like, I get that instant…I got the first 4 bars to this shit. I know how the song is gonna be mapped out from there. With beats, as far as working with other people you have to hope they connect with the stuff you play them and be prepared, really. I just look at this shit like with fashion. If you go to Sachs, 9/10 you gonna be able to find 1 or 2 pieces that fit in your pallet, even if you don’t use them immediately, its like you gonna find something and I look at it the same way. When you come here, it’s damn near no way you not gonna hear anything you can’t make an idea to.

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Q: In your long-standing career you have accomplished so much, yet your recent output of production shows how hungry you still are to reach higher. What motivates that?

A: Man, it’s just loving the music and then also my real life circumstances; my pops being locked up in prison, pretty much been in since he was 3. He had some moments where he got out but it wasn’t too long at all, like not even a couple years, so he’s always in and out. And that’s always a driving factor to just like, have that situation, where I can have him be comfortable, have everyone around me just comfortable. I’m working out of necessity as well, just trying to make sure my people straight. I’m the breadwinner, when anyone needs something in my family, I have a pretty big family—aunts, uncles— whatever, I’m pretty much taking care of everybody…not fully taking care of everyone, but I’m the one they come to. It’s the music, but also real life that’s got me like “I gotta go hard”.

Q: In recent years, the mistreatment of producers have been on the forefront of discussion within the hip-hop community. How do you think producers can gain more equity in the music business?

A: I mean, taking more control. Like with me, and a lot of different producers, putting your name on the songs too. Like my name is on “Racks in the Middle” but my vocals not on there but it’s like if my name wasn’t on “Racks in the Middle”, I would have never gotten a trophy. But I put the record together, so I deserve a trophy for it. That’s how I feel, that’s how I look at it. It’s just putting yourself in those positions and just you know, as many ways as you can aim that leverage and get your name out there, do it.

Q: How does it feel to be involved with “Racks in the Middle”?

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A: That shit really just gave me a whole new boost —musically. Just I feel like when Nip recorded that in here, he really left some energy in the studio. That’s why I feel like I was able to do all these projects, because after we made that record— everything that happened with him, you know rest in peace—it’s just like….people come in the studio and say the same thing he used to say…there’s no way they could know that Nip was saying these things. He used to come through and say “I don’t know what it is about this studio man, but there’s an energy in here. I feel like I want to work.” And everybody that come in say the same thing. I don’t know man, like working on “Racks in the Middle” I feel like leveled me up, like helped level Roddy up, get his first Grammy.

Q: Detroit 2, an album you executively produced, is one of hip-hop’s seminal albums for this year by far. Can you talk about what went into the vision for the record?

A: It was really just Sean having his vision, and knowing what he was trying to get across. It would be different ways of him trying to explain it, but it was really just me trying to dig deep and convey what he was trying to get across sonically. I feel like I knew what he needed as far as, just the most new, freshest sounding shit so but as far as putting it together, that was a lot of him really knowing…he did Detroit 1 and he knew it had to be a crazy sequel.

Q: There is an eclectic assortment of instrumentals specifically from you: how did you produce such a variety of beats yet somehow keep the album so cohesive?

A: Man, its just like what I said—just practicing that versatility, cause that’s kinda what I do. The thing is like, every beat that I’m doing, there’s a reference for like, “Damn he been doing kinda doing this type of shit.” Even with “Guard Your Heart”—back in the day we did “Christmas for Harlem”, that was the first song I did with Kanye and one of the first songs I did with Sean…Sean had a verse on there. You know, “Guard Your Heart” and “Christmas in Harlem”—it’s kinda like hip-hop groove, super soulfood, Motown-ish vibes—you know it’s just kind of full circle.

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Q: Can you talk about what it felt like to put together “Deep Reverence”?

A: He did that verse the same day he started “Racks in the Middle”. He did “Racks in the Middle”—one verse here, you know he would come back and do another verse so, the day the of the first verse of “Racks in the Middle” he was like “We gonna say the first verse, pull up some other beats” and one of them was the “Deep Reverence” beat and he was like “Yeah this is it, pull it up”— he sat there, I can still see him— I’m in that studio now, like I can see him sitting in a chair, just vibing to it, playing on repeat. He just started building it, line by line, and then he did the verse and that was kind of the end of our session. We finished “Racks in the Middle”, we did a couple other ideas but obviously he passed away.

So, I was in the studio with Sean and I was deep in the bag on working on his album, and he was like just kind of talking about a lot of the stuff he was saying on “Deep Reverence” just in conversation, it was just me and him in the studio just choppin’ it about real life and I was like “I got this Nip verse, I feel like you should say a lot of this on a song for the album” and I pulled the verse up and as soon as I played it “This is different, I gotta use this.”

Q: Your name recently came up in relation to the ongoing discussion of masters and ownership in the music industry, what positive steps would you want to see come to fruition in the next coming years in regards to that?

A: Just honestly, speaking from my situation personally, like I would, just you know, something that’s like—whatever language is in these contracts that’s going to hold you in forever and just have you in an unfair, unjust situation…let’s get that out of here. So whether it’s an artist who’s reached that level to where they feel like they deserve so and so…they make the money for you, they have overly paid you, you should be able to come to the table and say “Okay this is how we gonna make this happen.” But I feel like they will just shut you out and say “You signed this back in the day and that’s just what it is. And that’s just not right to me.

Q: So you were one of the first people to address this problem within the recent public discussion surrounding it, what made you want to speak out about that topic specifically?

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A: It was something that was on my mind and obviously in my heart, like this shit is my life. So it’s like, for me to be in a deal so long and not being able to progress through it and feel like it’s holding me back from being paid the way I really need to be paid because I should out of these deals, and you know ultimately they only had to invest or “risk” $50,000 on me, and they made that 100x over since we been working. They know what they doing, and they know they just getting free money at the end of the day.

Q: And the crazy part to think about is, if you are arguably one of the biggest producers of our time, and if you’re having issues with labels— I can’t even imagine what they are doing to small up-and-coming artists.

A: That was kind of my whole point. Look man, I did “Sicko Mode”, I did “Racks in the Middle”, I did “N*ggas In Paris”, I did “Flawless” for Beyoncé, I did “Bow Down” for Beyoncé. I did all these songs, like so many songs, and I am still in this messed up deal. So, kids, look it’s real out here. They don’t care how much work you put in, if you are in a messed up contract they wanna hold you in that for as long as they possibly can. It’s crazy because there are people in the UMPG building who have expressed that the way my deal is set-up, I will never get out of it. It’s unreal for it to be set-up this way and for them to not count my music the way it should be counted. It’s just funny to me.

Q: Earlier in the pandemic, you had a notable Verzuz with Boi-1da. How was that experience? How did it feel to have your work fully displayed like that?

A: That was fresh. That was an opportunity for me and him to get our shine, like forreal forreal. That was the whole thing about Verzus, it’s a much more pop platform now, but it was the whole thing about the unsung people getting their praise, not the people who are already on TV. And that was the thing about it, it gave us an opportunity to showcase what we had going.

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Q: It feels like this generation of producers in hip-hop are so unique to anything the genre has seen before, in regards not only to their sound, but their output and vision. What differentiating features do you see in the hip-hop producers of today versus when you got started?

A: I mean shit, I was studying all classic shit versus, kids they studying things from 2012-2013, that’s they classic, “N*ggas in Paris” is old school to them. So, it’s like, I was studying Hov and Nas and DMX and Snoop Dogg and all these people and these kids, they came up in a different era where 808’s were predominant. So if it don’t have an 808, 9 times out of 10 if it’s an artist under 21-22, they ain’t gonna get it, unless you Cordae or something.

Q: In your own personal opinion, what beat are you the most proud of and why?

A: It’s crazy cause I like “Big” and “HeMotions” on Juice WRLD’s album—and I feel like “Lithuania” on Detroit 2 is crazy, you know switch ups like…for them it to be seamless like that, usually when you go from acoustic, live sounding drums or something like that, or a different type of pattern, you would completely switch the beat up but, I kept it consistent. I feel like people don’t understand that’s not easy to do.

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Q: What else do you hope to accomplish in your career?

A: Honestly, the sky’s the limit. I just want to keep getting better. Producing more albums, bigger albums, better albums. I feel like I’ve produced some stuff that’s great, but I just want to get even better at it.

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